How to Back Up and Restore Your Eco Server

Back up the Storage folder, restore from a Backup snapshot, and survive Eco server updates without losing your world.

Eco has no in-game rollback and no built-in restore command. The entire server state — every block, plant, animal, player, building, government, law — lives in two files inside the Storage/ folder. Lose them, lose everything. This page is the workflow that prevents that.

What to Back Up

Eco/Eco_Data/Server/Storage/
├── Game.eco          ← live world state (JSON)
├── Game.db           ← live world state (SQLite)
├── Archive.eco       ← world history archive
└── Backup/           ← rolling auto-backups created by the server
    ├── Game.eco      ← snapshot
    └── Game.db       ← snapshot

File	What
`Game.eco` + `Game.db`	The live world. These two files must always travel together — they reference each other.
`Archive.eco`	History data (player actions, government decisions). Useful for moderation but not required for the world to load.
`Backup/`	Eco creates rolling snapshots here automatically. The `.eco` and `.db` inside are the same format as the live world.

The whole Storage folder is what you back up.

Method 1: Panel Backup (Easiest)

Stop your server from Console in the XGamingServer Panel.

Open the Backups tab and click Create Backup.

Name it (e.g. pre-meteor-2026-04) and confirm.

Restore: same tab → ... → Restore.

Method 2: Manual Download

Use this when you want full portability (e.g. moving the world to a different host).

Stop the server.

In Files, navigate to:

Eco/Eco_Data/Server/Storage/

Right-click Game.eco → Download. Then Game.db → Download. Keep them together.

(Optional) Also download Archive.eco and the Backup/ folder if you want history and rolling snapshots too.

Restore from a Backup Folder Snapshot

The server creates rolling snapshots in Storage/Backup/ automatically. To roll back to one:

Stop the server.

In Files, navigate to Eco/Eco_Data/Server/Storage/Backup/. You'll see backup snapshots — pick the one you want to restore.

Copy the snapshot's Game.eco and Game.db files out of Backup/ and into Storage/, overwriting the live Game.eco and Game.db.

Start the server. The world loads from the rolled-back snapshot.

Critical: Game.eco and Game.db must come from the same backup snapshot. Mixing files from different snapshots will corrupt the world.

Surviving an Eco Server Update

Eco updates frequently break old saves. Pocket Pair / Strange Loop ships migrations but they sometimes fail. Always back up Storage before updating.

Stop the server.

Create a panel backup (Method 1 above).

Run the update (typically by reinstalling the Eco binary while preserving Storage/ — the update process should never touch user data, but verify).

Start the server. If it loads, you're good. If it crashes on startup with save errors, restore the backup and wait for a hotfix.

Migrate to a Different Host

The whole Storage/ folder is portable across hosts — Eco is the same binary on Linux and Windows, and the save format is platform-independent.

Stop the source server. Download Storage/Game.eco, Storage/Game.db, and Storage/Archive.eco.

On the new XGamingServer Eco server, stop it and delete the existing Storage/Game.eco and Storage/Game.db.

Upload your downloaded files into Eco/Eco_Data/Server/Storage/.

Start the server. The new instance loads your old world, players, and history.

Make sure both servers are on the same Eco version before migrating — newer save files won't load on older binaries.

Common Issues

Problem	Cause	Fix
Server crashes on load after restoring	Mismatched `Game.eco` + `Game.db` from different backups	Re-restore from one snapshot, both files together
"Save format too new" error	Migrating to a host running an older Eco version	Update the destination server first
Backup folder is empty	Server hasn't run long enough to create rolling snapshots, or `Backup/` was manually cleared	Use Method 1 (panel backups) instead
Players "lost" after restore	The restore was older than when the player joined	Check the snapshot date matches what you intended

How to Back Up and Restore Your Eco Server

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